Fiona Ingram's Blog, page 52

What Writers Can Learn From Actor Gary Oldman


The Dark Knight RisesI’d like to talk about actor Gary Oldman, and what writers can learn from him. The inspiration for the post comes from the third movie in the Dark Knight trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises. I can’t wait to see the film (it opens here in South Africa this weekend!). I know it’s going to be amazing and one of the reasons is my all-time favourite actor Gary Oldman. (My sympathies go out to all the victims and their families of the shootings at the Aurora, Colorado opening.)


It may seem strange to use an actor as someone that writers can learn from, but be patient, dear readers.

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker, and musician. A Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre alumnus, Oldman’s many and varied film roles include: Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, Clive 'Bex' Bissel in The Firm, Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; as well as prominent supporting roles including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series and James Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy. A popular portrayer of villains, he has played the antagonist of films like True Romance, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, and The Contender. Aside from film acting, he played an acclaimed guest role in Friends, and wrote and directed Nil by Mouth.

Oldman has garnered widespread critical and peer respect: he has been described as "the best young British actor around", and later, "one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble”; actor Tom Hardy once remarked, "Gary Oldman is, hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived.” As an actor, he has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and three Saturn Awards (one win); for Nil by Mouth he won two BAFTA Awards and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Norman Stansfield, the antagonist played by Oldman in Léon: The Professional has been named as one of cinema's greatest villains. In 2011, Oldman was voted an "Icon of Film" by Empire readers.

The highest praise comes from Oldman’s peers, film critics, and from upcoming actors. His talents have provided inspiration and influence for younger actors including Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Hardy, Ryan Gosling, Shia LaBeouf, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Jason Isaacs, and Michael Fassbender. Peers such as Anthony Hopkins, Colin Firth, Ralph Fiennes, and John Hurt have expressed their admiration of Oldman's acting talents. Prior to his first (and long overdue) Academy Award nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Oldman was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors never nominated for such an award; Leigh Singer of The Guardian called him "arguably the best actor never Oscar-nominated."

Right, so by now you get it. Oldman is a brilliant actor. It took me quite a long time and many movies later to remember the name of the actor playing the above-mentioned roles. He played them so perfectly that I remembered the character, not the actor. Isn’t that how it should be?

Oldman never ‘plays the same’ in any of his roles. Chameleon-like, he fits on the skin of the character, and becomes that character in every possible way. Unlike big name stars like Tom Cruise (sorry, Tom!) and Will Smith (ditto) whose acting talents, unfortunately, have become bogged down by their glamour and fame, Oldman glides effortlessly from one persona to another.

Each time he adopts a character, he creates a unique, never-before seen persona. Even his villains have many layers and facets to make them absolutely credible.

As a writer, do you do the same?

Are you recycling characters because it’s easier than getting under the skin of someone new?
Is your feisty heroine the same as all the previous feisty heroines you’ve written or read about?
Is your villain the same ‘Mwahahaha!’ mustache-twirling, evil-eye-glaring villain in all your books?
Is your strong-jawed uber-heroic hero a carbon copy of his predecessors?
Do you like certain scenes/elements/conflicts so much that you dust them off, change a few things, and then throw them into the plot?Many actors and even more writers take the easy way out. How many times have you, as a reader, stopped reading a once favourite author because their writing is starting to sound the same? I know I have. How many actors do you find rehashing their one great opus magnum role, time after time?


See? It's Tom on the poster. Can't miss him.Let’s take Tom Cruise as the best example (sorry Tom!). He is absolutely brilliant in many ways (actor, businessman, producer, strategist), but he keeps taking on roles that show the flashy glam side, with little or no substance e.g. Mission Impossible. I remember four movies that I felt were excellent, and although I knew it was Tom Cruise, he played the roles to perfection. Born on the Fourth of July, The Last Samurai, Valkyrie, and Tropic Thunder. The fact that I did not recognise Tom Cruise as the nasty producer (Tropic Thunder) until the credits rolled will always stick in my memory. However, those are the exceptions. (Okay, confession, I still enjoy watching all the Mission Impossibles…)

But I don’t want to ‘have to’ suspend my disbelief. I want to just tumble into the story unfolding in front of me, be it on the screen or on the page.

So, once again, do you put in the extra work to get to grips with each character and create someone new and fresh? Or do you rehash the old stuff?

Back Cover Copy: Is Yours Misleading?

It seems like a strange question: is your back cover copy misleading? After all, as writers we constantly hear about the importance of back cover copy. A book's cover, inside copy (if there is any) and back cover copy are vital to hooking a reader into buying your book. Apart from word of mouth and reviews, both very subjective options, readers have no other way of deciding if they want to purchase your book or not.

So, perhaps another way of putting it could be: does your book live up to the back cover copy?

I was inspired to ponder upon this question after I read False Impression by Jeffrey Archer. The author is not my first choice when it comes to books. However, he is a skilled and accomplished storyteller, as his multimillion-dollar sales attest. Who can forget Kane and Abel? I took the book out the library for my Aged P, an avid Archer fan. If Mr. Archer rewrote the telephone directory, Mom would read it. Oh, if only we all had such devoted fans. But, back to the book. I read the back cover blurb below:

Why was an elegant lady brutally murdered the night before 9/11? Why was a successful New York banker not surprised to receive a woman’s left ear in the morning mail?Why did a top Manhattan lawyer work only for one client, but never charge a fee?Why did a young woman with a bright career steal a priceless Van Gogh painting?  Why was an Olympic gymnast paid a million dollars an assignment when she didn’t have a bank account? Why was an honors graduate working as a temporary secretary after inheriting a fortune?
Why was an English Countess ready to kill the banker, the lawyer, and the gymnast even if it meant spending the rest of her life in jail?
Why was a Japanese steel magnate happy to hand over $50,000,000 to a woman he had only met once?
Why was a senior FBI agent trying to work out the connection between these eight apparently innocent individuals?
All these questions are answered in Jeffrey Archer’s latest novel, False Impression, but not before a breathtaking journey of twists and turns that will take readers from New York to London to Bucharest and on to Tokyo, and finally a sleepy English village, where the mystery of Van Gogh’s last painting will finally be resolved. And only then will readers discover that Van Gogh’s Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear has a secret of its own that acts as the final twist in this unforgettable yarn.

It sounds utterly incredible, doesn’t it? The world’s biggest disaster bar the sinking of the Titanic; the murky world of double-dealing in priceless art; an unscrupulous banker; an innocent art expert who is wrongly accused; an assassin with a penchant for kitchen knives… I could go on and on. This book has all the ingredients of a great thriller, plus some extra art info on the side and a cleverly punned title. I read the book. I couldn’t help myself, after such enticing back cover copy!

So, why was I disappointed? Because the book did not live up to the exciting menu on the back cover copy. Did the author or publisher mislead me? No, all those things took place. Were all the loose ends tied up? Absolutely. So…?

Having been promised a fast-paced thriller, with great characters, I was disappointed because I received a plodding and formulaic conspiracy-meets-art-theft storyline, with characters that are mere cardboard cutouts of what they could have been. While not exactly airport cannon fodder, False Impression veers alarmingly close to that category. I would rate it a three-star read.

Another example is The Malice Box , by Martin Langfield. I read the back cover copy, was entranced by the glittering, embossed cover, and found myself deeply disappointed by a muddled story that began with a thrilling bang, and ended with a mystical whimper. I would rate it three stars.

Publisher’s Weekly had this to say: Owing an obvious debt to Dan Brown's mega blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, Langfield's ambitious debut incorporates elements of supernatural mystery, Dante-esque journey and apocalyptic thriller, but the pieces fail to come together into a satisfying whole. With a powerful alchemical weapon primed to detonate in a week's time, Robert Reckliss must unlock seven puzzles and find seven keys hidden around Manhattan before the Malice Box unleashes some unspecified evil on the inhabitants of New York City. Standing in his way is the Brotherhood of Iwnw (pronounced yoonu), otherworldly scavengers of the soul bent on remaking civilization with themselves as overlords. Two-dimensional characters, contrived situations and a mishmash of plot-threads—a potentially world-altering discovery involving a recovered document written by Isaac Newton, secret societies, gateways between worlds, America's war against terrorism, Christian and Islamic mysticism, ley lines—make this one of the weaker contenders in the crowded religious thriller field. (taken from the Amazon book page)

The bottom line is this: are you giving readers the wrong impression of your book’s content? Is your story what you say and think it is? Ponder upon the potential response from a reader, not how you want to appear as a writer. I am both an avid reader and a writer. I love books. I feel disappointment like a blow when a book does not give me what it promises. Are Jeffrey Archer and Martin Langfield bad writers? No, they are excellent, possibly brilliant writers, but the books did not deliver what they promised.

Let’s clarify that sentence: to me. Both books have reviews ranging from five to one stars. The writers are published by top publishers (St Martin’s Press and Pegasus). They know what they are doing, but these two books don’t deliver on the promise.

Look at your back cover copy.

Is your plot thrilling? Check.

Are your characters real and convincing? Check.

Is your storyline compelling? Check.

Do you think your reader will be disappointed because the book ends, or at the end of the book?

Um … check?

Make Amazon Do Your Marketing!

I have to blog about a gem of a book I reviewed recently: Aggie Villanueva’s Amazon Categories Create Bestsellers . Not only did the book open my eyes as to how Amazon works, their review policies, and their sometimes draconian behaviour patterns, it also educated me regarding the way Amazon is structured. Learn how Amazon ticks, and you’ll have greater control over how your book is presented to the mass of readers  out there who could be buying your book, if only you can get them to see it. This book teaches you how to put Amazon to good use.

Understanding Amazon
Any author who wants to see their book up there in Amazon’s shop front needs to understand Amazon. Aggie Villanueva demystifies the giant in the sky. Far from being just a books-and-more store, Amazon has built-in marketing strategies that arise naturally from their own unique construction. Blessed be the author who manages to work out this for himself.

[image error] Get this book and implement the simple steps outlined to achieve marketing/sales success. Don’t think the length of the book (78 pages) means you won’t get the information you need. It is packed with tips! I spent time reading it to make sure I understood the strategies outlined, and then I went onto my own book page on Amazon and implemented them. What a shock to see how much your publisher does NOT do for you!

Tight Targeting Gets Your Book Places
Villaneuva dismantles the nuts and bolts of Amazon, and suggests that simply by tapping into the seemingly insignificant areas such as categories, tags, reviews and discussion groups, an incredible marketing machine starts working for the book. Why spend money on a marketing plan when merely making sure your book is properly categorized will reap rich rewards.

Here's the secret weapon: Correct category listings can catapult a book into bestseller lists. Nearly every Top-100 list is drawn from categories. Get that right (you can do it yourself) and your book will fly. You can then get into other Top-100 lists.

[image error] My children's adventure novel The Secret of the Sacred Scarab has been placed in two categories:

Books; Children's Books; Action & AdventureBooks; Children's Books; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Fantasy & MagicI thought hard about this and then decided there wasn't any other category I could think of that was applicable.

The Amazon Helpdesk (and they are helpful!) had this to say about having more ctaegories: "Some books have more than two browsing categories because the categories have been updated automatically through data feeds provided by the book's publishers."

Don't Ignore the Benefits
Many authors prefer to use other or their own sites as selling points because they earn more on each book sale. However, it’s hard to ignore the benefits of the world’s largest store and publicity machine. Amazon’s automated system is simple but multilayered.

Books correctly listed will then benefit from free and automatic publicity that reaches millions of readers every day. Using Amazon Central, an author can also monitor and track a book’s performance in these different categories.

Hidden Extras
This book is also a treasure trove when it comes to hidden extras. The pages are sprinkled with links to other marketing videos or supplementary material, all designed to help you get your book from Amazon to a slew of readers. The writing is clear, and understandable to even the most technologically challenged writer (like me!) Screen grabs also point you in the right direction.

But Wait, There’s More!
More? Is this possible? Absolutely. If you follow Villaneuva’s careful step-by-step suggestions, you’ll end up in your Author Central Dashboard (a vital tool!) on Amazon where … tada! … you’ll find that linking back to your Amazon book details are your Shelfari book details. If you have a Shelfari account and wondered why recently you were asked if you wanted to log in via your Amazon account, this is why.

[image error] Shelfari is sometimes regarded as the ‘poor cousin’ of the triumvirate, with swanky Librarything leading the pack, and good solid Goodreads (which gets lots of publicity) following a close second. Not so. Shelfari enables you to load a huge amount of book detail on your own books such as: characters, locations, descriptions, quotes, awards, synopses, similar books etc. If you fill your Shelfari book details to the hilt, you’ll find many of these extras appearing in your Book Extras on Amazon.

Take advantage of every possible marketing angle that you’ll find in this book and the extras that add on, perhaps giving you the advantage over your competitors. There are many thousands of books published annually worldwide. Make sure you have an edge!

Amazon Categories Create Bestsellers is an essential guide. Highly recommended.

For more marketing advice, visit Promotion a La Carte . From tours to simple tips 'n' tricks, there’s something there for every author!

The Magic of White Space

Have you ever wondered why some books are such a mission to read, and others ...well, you literally fly through the story, swept along by a great plot and gripping elements. The answer is quite simple and who better to explain why than Randy Ingermanson, who offers loads of simple writing advice.

Creating White Space Magic

One of the most common mistakes I see when I critique manuscripts is that the paragraphs are too long. When I see a dense page of text that has only three or four paragraphs, I suspect the pace is going to be slow and the writing is going to be boring. When I see a page with a lot of white space, I suspect the pace is going to be fast and the writing is going to have a lot of conflict.

Part of this is just a psychological illusion.

When someone is reading a scene with a lot of white space, their eyes zip rapidly down the page.

Before they know it, they're  flipping the page, and then the next, and the next.

White space makes your reader feel like they're flying.

As I said, this is a psychological trick, and by itself it doesn't mean very much. Pace is about more than reading pages rapidly. Pace is about the amount of conflict coming at the reader on each page.

Fiction thrives on conflict.

Don't confuse conflict with mere physical action. Conflict is about trading punches, but most often those punches are verbal or psychological, not physical.

Conflict is a lawyer cross-examining a lying witness. Conflict is a woman trying to get her man to tell her what he's really feeling. Conflict is a baseball player stepping up to the plate with the tying run on third and facing the league's toughest pitcher in the final inning of the World Series.

Conflict is about back-and-forth.

You get the least conflict per page when you use a lot of description, narrative summary, and exposition. All of these tend to use long paragraphs that focus on a single thing.

You get the most conflict per page when you have a lot of action and dialogue and when you alternate rapidly between characters. Doing that will naturally give you a lot of short, punchy paragraphs.

The more paragraphs you have, the more white space on the page.

This isn't complicated, so I'm not going to belabor it. White space is magic, not because it CAUSES good writing but because it's an EFFECT of good writing.

If you've got a scene that your critiques are telling you is slow and boring, take a look at how much white space you've got. You probably need more.

Look for every paragraph longer than five lines. Can you break it up? It probably has some description or long explanation or something else that you're certain your reader can't live without. Kill it. Get rid of it. Be a brute.

Here is where you protest that you can't do that—your reader will hate you forever for cutting out that long horrible explanation about the history of mildew. Fine, if it's that important, then cut it down to three lines. But you know in your lying little heart that it's not that important. It may be that the paragraph has no description or explanation at all. In fact, you may believe it's packed with action. The tiger and the vampire are locked in a wrestling match to the death. But if that paragraph is longer than five lines, you're probably using narrative summary. You're telling your reader about the fight, rather than showing the fight.

If a fight is worth having in your story, it's worth showing, punch by punch, snarl by snarl, bite by bite. Break up that long paragraph into a sequence of actions and reactions. One paragraph for the vampire, one for the tiger, back and forth, until you have a victor. When you do that, you'll naturally produce a lot of white space. Your eyes will tell you when you've done enough.

It's possible to go too far, of course. You don't want to have an entire novel of one-line paragraphs. White space is wonderful, but there can be too much of a good thing. I've seen two writers who used too much white space. Oddly enough, both of them are best-selling authors. I've never seen a bad writer use too much white space.

If too much white space is your problem, there's an easy fix for it. Just add in some interior monologue, some sensory description, and even an occasional bit of exposition to fatten up a few paragraphs.

White space is magic. White space is power. You know the drill. Great power, great responsibility.

Use it well.

This article is reprinted by permission of the author. Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 31,000 readers. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit his site . Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

What Writers Can Learn From Snow White and the Huntsman

 Visually compelling but short on lots of story elements. I’ve just watched Snow White and the Huntsman and I emerged from the cocoon of the movie theatre a mite confused. Was it an action movie? A love story that didn’t get off the ground? Why were the characters so confused? Why did no one have any real motivation except the Huntsman and his was simple: money. Why did minor elements such as the amazing Troll and the wonderfully cantankerous Dwarves steal the show?


My YA daughter, a stalwart Kristen Stewart fan (thanks to Twilight) countered my every criticism with, “Oh, it’s not that bad.” Then I realised how much was just not that good, and how a movie’s failings (visual book thing again) can translate to the page for authors. So, what can we learn from Snow White and the Huntsman?

I read a few reviews to help me understand why I did not enjoy this visual feast, for a visual feast it is. From the red blood, to the white snow, to the raven black elements, to the knights in silvery shining armour racing along the beach with swords drawn, all the beauty is there … but it cannot sustain what is essentially a great story told poorly.

 Great action sequences! Synopsis: Snow White is the princess of Tabor. After his wife's death, King Magnus marries the beautiful Ravenna after rescuing her from the Dark Army, an invading force of glass soldiers. Ravenna—who is in fact a powerful sorceress and the Dark Army's master—kills Magnus on their wedding night. As Ravenna seizes control of the kingdom, Duke Hammond escapes the Castle with his son William, but is unable to save Snow White. Snow White is then locked away in a tower of the castle.

 Real scene stealers! The kingdom declines under Ravenna's rule as she periodically drains the youth from young women in order to maintain a spell once cast by her mother, which allows her to keep her beauty. When Snow White comes of age, Ravenna learns from her Magic Mirror that Snow White is destined to destroy her unless Ravenna consumes the young girl's heart, which will make her immortal. Ravenna orders her brother Finn to bring her Snow White but she escapes into the Dark Forest, where Ravenna has no power. Eric the Huntsman, a drunken widower who has survived the Dark Forest, is brought to Ravenna who orders him to lead Finn in pursuit of Snow White. In exchange, she promises to revive his deceased wife Sarah. Duke Hammond learns that Snow White is alive and has fled into the Dark Forest, and his son William, Snow White's childhood friend, later infiltrates Finn's band as a bowman to find her.

The Huntsman locates Snow White in the Dark Forest but Finn admits that Ravenna cannot resurrect the dead. The Huntsman then helps Snow White to escape, promising to escort her to Duke Hammond's castle in exchange for a reward of gold. They meet the dwarves who just about steal the show, and thereafter it’s on to the Duke’s castle to round up an army to defeat the evil Queen.

 Wonderful fairy tale troll! Fairy tales are part of the dark mythological underbelly of civilisation, and many lessons and social commentaries exist today in these handed down tales. In like fashion, many books are simply repeats of or expansions upon eternal themes such as the quest/journey/coming of age etc. Anne R. Allen says: Experts don’t agree on the exact number of narrative plots, but there aren’t many. (Good post in case you think someone like James Patterson stole your plot!)


So how can we look at this film and learn some writing lessons?

Let’s check out the reviews. These comments (I've underlined the most telling) can be applied to writing.

Rotten Tomatoes: While it offers an appropriately dark take on the fairy tale that inspired it, Snow White and the Huntsman is undone by uneven acting, problematic pacing, and a confused script.

The Washington Post: Michael O’Sullivan says: Too many bad apples spoil a tale. Overlong, overcrowded, overstimulating and with an over-the-top performance by Charlize Theron as the evil queen Ravenna, the movie is a virtual orchard of toxic excess, starting with the unnecessarily sprawling cast of characters. Snow White and the Huntsman feels less like a movie than a deadly cocktail of movie clichés, all of which have been thrown into a blender, set to ‘slow’ and pureed for two hours.

The San Francisco Chronicle: “…which takes everything mythic about ‘Snow White’ and pounds it out until it's flat and dead. It takes something whose truth is elusive and turns it into a movie that's obvious and trivial. The fairy tale … suffers from a problem in its rhythm. It's not that its pace is too slow, but that it's too regular, and this lack of syncopation makes it feel slow.

Ouch!

A Writer’s Digest article advises: Analyze successful stories. They (writers) ask questions when reading and use their findings to help strengthen their work. For example:

• How does the writer make me want to turn the page?
• Why am I drawn to the lead character?
• When are the stakes raised?
• How does the writer integrate minor characters?
• What makes a scene work?
• What’s the key to conflict?
• How does the writer handle dialogue?

In my humble opinion, the problem with Snow White is that loads of bad stuff eclipsed loads of good stuff. A cleaner, simpler story, tighter pacing, consistent characterization, believable motivation, a good sub-text and backstory, and quicker links to the actually great action scenes would have transformed this film into a iconic version of a tried and tested tale of good triumphing over evil. People don’t get tired of a good story told well.

How well are you telling your story?

Beware the Expert Reader!

Convincing the Expert Reader is hard, because whatever you write, there's always an expert reader waiting to pounce. But expert readers are good for writers. Yes, they really are because when you write with an expert reader in mind, you get your facts straight.

In many movies and books, some of the characters do the most uncharacteristic (or plain dumb) things. (See my previous post discussing the movie Prometheus) I hate it when something a character says or does just sounds wrong, or else I know it cannot be done. I happened upon a great article by John Yeoman of Writer’s Village: How can you make your characters’ actions appear plausible?

Many a good story has collapsed because a character did something that just didn't ring true.


Tom Hanks looks exhausted!The plot of The Da Vinci Code, absurd enough from the start, topples into farce about halfway through the story. Why? All the action—spanning 180,000 words—is supposed to take place within the space of just 24 hours. Yet in that brief time the characters have run, flown and driven halfway across Europe and England.

Nobody ever sleeps! (Have you noticed?) By chapter 105, Prof Langdon is still making brilliant deductions, having been awake for 30 hours. Somehow, it doesn't 'ring true'...

Beware the expert reader

Every story has an expert reader who will embarrassingly point out that, for example, your 25 stone villain just could not have wriggled down a 15-inch wide manhole in a New York street, circa 1920, while disguised in a fire-fighter's uniform. But if you get even the tiny details right, that expert reader—highly impressed—will buy everything you write thereafter. And your story will also convey the 'ring of truth' to everyone else.

Q: How do you enhance your story with a 'ring of truth', effortlessly?
A: Make your story plausible and your characters 'real'

Helpful Hint: If you want your character to do something unusual, do it yourself.

Otherwise, you will never be able to convey—convincingly—how the experience looks, feels, hears, smells, or tastes to the character. True, you might not wish, personally, to flee a drug-crazed axman or abseil one-handed down the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. But if it’s do-able, do it.

When I wanted my character to rescue a heron snarled high in an ancient elm, I scaled my plum tree. After ten feet, my hair was thick with dust, leaves, and insects. (I had never realised how dusty tree bark can become in dry weather.) My trousers grew green with mould and I became massively perforated like St Bartholomew with little twigs. Of course, I then got stuck. (Branches are never as close to hand in real life as they are in fiction.) My wife had to rescue me with the window cleaner's ladder.

On another occasion, I needed a thief to climb an old staircase with a lantern in his hand. So I did exactly that. I found it was necessary to step on the inside of the stairwell to avoid telltale creaking noises and to breathe very slowly (ditto). I also had to tread on the balls of my feet (ditto) and to balance myself on the banister by my left elbow. (I didn’t want to leave tell-tale finger marks.)

Have you ever dragged yourself across an attic floor, gibbering? In a different tale, I decided to have my protagonist explore the eaves of an old castle in search of dark family secrets. Luckily, I live in an old house. So I dragged myself across a blanket of 18th century dust. My knee went through one of the ceiling planks. Below it, I found an orange—perhaps the lunch of some bygone builder. The orange was entirely hollow. Its inside had withered away to leave only a perfect mummified shell. It nicely symbolised my fictional family—immaculate before the gaze of the world but rotten within.

You can't make these details up. You have to discover them.

So if a detective finds the full mark of a flat foot on a dusty stair, I realized, it had probably been put there for a deceptive purpose. Because people typically climb stairs on the balls of their feet. All these little points of observation found their way into my story.

When historical novelist Elizabeth Chadwick sets her stories in medieval castles, she visits them—with camera, notebook, and tape measure in hand. If she tells you that her hero in 1395 wriggled out of a kitchen window of Ludlow Castle that was exactly 15 inches wide, 16 feet above the courtyard and ten paces from the main gate, you can trust her. She’s measured it.
 Climb that castle wall first!
That’s one reason she has a loyal readership. Apparently, some readers make a point of visiting the locations of her novels, just to check her measurements!

Don’t imagine it. Do it. Walk your story, as far as sanity permits. And readers will then believe you and your story.

So there you have it, dear writers (and readers). Never guess how long/high/light/far/heavy etc. something is. Do it yourself! Run from the Louvre to the Opera House (The Da Vinci Code), climb that mediaeval castle wall if possible, shimmy up that tree and really try to rescue the cat (Trust me, they don’t cooperate).

For more excellent tips, sign up for John’s newsletter and get the latest on writing courses.

What Writers Can Learn From Prometheus!

So, what can writers learn from Prometheus?


I just watched the new Ridley Scott film Prometheus. Is it good? It’s great. But is it good? No, not really, if you’re interested in the story, the fact that it’s the prequel to the wildly successful Alien franchise, and if you’re a stickler for tying up loose ends. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind threads not being carefully tied up by the end of a film or book, then don’t panic. Sometimes it’s good just to go along for the ride. But if you’re the pernickety kind of person that all writers should be, then pay attention.

Story: Set in the late 21st century, the story centres on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as they follow a star map discovered among the remnants of several ancient Earth cultures. Led to a distant world and an advanced civilization, the crew seeks the origins of humanity, but instead discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human race.

 Prometheus Now read this Forbes review, which posed many of the questions I asked myself as I walked out the theatre. How, why, when, why not, no, really, you can’t be serious, oh, please! – all the questions/comments readers/viewers should never have to ask at the end of a book/movie.

So, the lesson writers can learn from Prometheus is this: keep a tight hold on your story. Grab it by the tail and don’t let it go, not for a second.






Fatal Flaw #1: Unanswered Questions

Helpful Hint: Answer every question and tie up every thread by the end of your book. A nifty way of doing this is to make a synopsis of each chapter once you have written it. Then when you have finished your manuscript, and the accompanying synopsis for each chapter, read the manuscript backwards (yep, backwards) and check if you have answered every single question that an alert reader might raise. How did Character A get the amazing artifact? How or why did Character B get motivated to do whatever? Is the secret everyone’s been trying to discover actually worth all the trouble people took to conceal it? As you edit your own work, ask the questions as each character confronts them, and then write them down. By the end of your book, go back, read the questions, and answer them. If you can’t, then your reader can’t.

Fatal Flaw #2: Characters Doing Uncharacteristic Things

Helpful Hint: This was a big problem for me in the movie and so much so that the characters’ sometimes-idiotic behaviour actually diminished their authenticity for me. You’re asking readers (or in this case, moviegoers) to suspend their disbelief and join you in an incredible story that will move/excite/anger/do whatever to engage their emotions. So, make sure your characters behave like real people and that they don’t do things that are uncharacteristic just because you have to make your story move along.

Did I like the movie? I LOVED it, until I started asking myself all these niggling questions. But, I still loved it. I'll probably buy the DVD.

Can Facts be Fascinating?

Can non-fiction be fascinating? This sounds like a strange question, but the answer (depending on the book, of course) can be yes. I have been enthralled by the story of the unsolved murder of Charles Bravo ever since I saw a BBC documentary on the subject. I recently read a few reviews of the book Death at the Priory on Goodreads and the reviews themselves were so interesting that finally I bought the book. It could be that murders are fascinating in themselves, especially unsolved crimes. Numerous books abound on the topic of the identity of Jack the Ripper, for example. Forensic science has improved thousand-fold with the development of DNA, fingerprinting, and the various (forgive me!) CSI-style techniques now available. However, I’m sure even Horatio would have a problem solving this crime.


Charles Bravo (1845 - 21 April 1876) was a British lawyer who was fatally poisoned with antimony in 1876. The case is still sensational, notorious, and unresolved. It was an unsolved crime committed within an elite Victorian household at The Priory, a landmark house in Balham, London. The reportage eclipsed even government and international news at the time. Leading doctors attended the bedside, including Royal physician Sir William Gull, and all agreed it was a case of antimony poisoning. The victim took three days to die but gave no indication of the source of the poison during that time. Was it suicide, accidental self-poisoning, or murder? No one was ever charged for the crime.

His wealthy wife Florence had previously been married but had been separated from her first husband (who later died) because of his affairs and violent alcoholism. The impetuous Florence had also enjoyed an extramarital affair with a fashionable society doctor, the much older Dr. James Manby Gully, who was also married at the time. Her affair became public knowledge and Florence fell out of favor with her family and society. In order to reenter society, she married Charles Bravo. The marriage appeared to be doomed from the start. It was whispered that Charles had married Florence for her money, but the wealthy Florence had opted to hold onto her assets, a choice provided by new laws in England at the time (Married Women's Property Act 1870). This financial imbalance led immediately to tensions within the marriage. Police enquiries in the case revealed Charles's behavior towards Florence as being controlling, mean, and violent. Florence also experienced several miscarriages in quick succession, but Charles brutally persisted in forcing her to keep trying for an heir. However, given the nature of the man, there was no shortage of people in the Bravo household with motives for poisoning Charles Bravo.

Two inquests were held and the sensational details were considered so scandalous that women and children were banned from the room while Florence Bravo testified. The first returned an open verdict. The second inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder; however, nobody was ever arrested or charged. The household broke up after the inquest ended and the twice-widowed Florence moved away, dying of alcohol poisoning two years later.

Over a hundred years later, author James Ruddick embarked upon his own in-depth investigations in a case that reads like a modern page-turner. Drawing on detailed court and newspaper records, archives, family papers and letters, and interviews with surviving relatives, he has unearthed a wealth of information that gives conclusive evidence as to various suspects' motives and opportunities. His travels locally and internationally yielded comments from surviving family friends and local inhabitants. Medical research also gives tantalizing hints as to why, if it was not suicide or accidental self-poisoning, Bravo did not say whom he thought was the poisoner.

This is a fantastic read and I could not put the book down. The author has found such compelling evidence to exonerate some particular suspects, evidence that was never investigated all that time ago. It points out the flaws in policing methods of the day, as well as how social perceptions of the time influenced popular thinking. Ruddick give a deep and, at times, sensitive insight into the personalities of the main players, showing how they were trapped by their own natures (the headstrong spoiled Florence and the dominant Charles) as well as by the social mores and actual laws of the era. It is also a fascinating insight into the stultifying, repressive atmosphere of Victorian England, and the sad situation of many women of all social classes. Detective novel, historical docu-drama, and police thriller... call it what you will, I highly recommend this book to all readers with a penchant for detective and mystery novels. Draw your own conclusions...the author gives plenty of evidence for and against!

Pinterest: The Power of a Pin!

Pinterest: the new name on everyone’s lips and I must have been the last person on the planet to wake up and create my own boards. Actually, I am embarrassed to say that my initial reaction on hearing the word “Pinterest” was that it had some thing to do with the playwright Harold Pinter. How foolish one can be… I hardly know where to start in describing Pinterest and how it can benefit your work. So, here’s great advice from the Author Marketing Experts who know best.


The Power of a Pin: Why Pinterest is a Game Changer

For those of you who haven't been on Pinterest, the concept is almost deceptively simple. You sign up for an account (there's a waiting period right now as Pinterest tries to manage traffic and new accounts, once you sign up it should take about a week before you can get in). The site is a collection of boards, sort of like virtual bulletin boards that you name and add to your page. You can have as many boards as you want and name them whatever you want (though make sure to read through the Pinterest terms of service so you know you're not violating any of their regulations). The boards can describe your brand, book, message, or business.

So, that said, how can you make the most of Pinterest? Like any social network, I recommend that you poke around, follow a few people in your industry, and see what they are posting about. There are a lot of creative boards and a lot of companies using Pinterest as a unique brand extension.

Picking your Boards
First, it's important to come up with creative and interesting board names. Keep in mind that these board names get shared whenever someone repins you so make them catchy!When you first start on Pinterest, you are a completely blank slate. It's up to you to fill your new Pinterest page with exciting boards. But where to start? Well, your business, product, message, or book will often determine the boards you put up. You should consider your audience first and what they would like to see. Here are a few ideas:
If you do a lot of speaking or other offline events, create a board that captures the excitement of these by posting pictures and videos. This is especially great if you have a conference or other big event you're planning. You could put the board up early with "teaser" content to encourage sign-ups, too!Create a customer or reader board that has pictures and/or videos of happy customers. I often talk about capturing endorsements or reviews on video when you see someone at an event, these can be posted to this board. How-to boards are great as well. You can create a board (or several) around how-to's related to your product or service.Company boards are great too, you can create one that showcases your company, sharing your core values, and also highlights your team. Thank you boards are great, too. Consider creating a thank you board for clients.If you're promoting a new book, product, or campaign you can also create a board to support that. The board can have tutorials on it, or videos of the new product. It can be a combination of how-to and showcasing what you're offering. Trends and seasonal stuff make great boards, too. So don't hesitate to create a holiday or trend board if you think your audience will be interested.You can also let your customers work on a board with you. Create a user-generated content board and invite customers or readers to pin away! Marketing Ideas
If the idea of Pinterest is still intimidating, consider the following marketing ideas for your boards:

Videos: Pinterest loves videos. What videos can you pin to a board? Keywords are big on Pinterest, so be sure to think carefully about what you name your picture and what words you use in the description. You can even use hash tags on Pinterest and if you're trying to get the attention of another Pinner, use the @ followed by their Pin-name to tag them. You can also use a dollar sign to add a "ribbon" to your pin that will immediately show pricing. This is great if you're selling product. When you add your pin, don't forget to tweet it and add it to Facebook, you can do this as soon as the pin is loaded. When you blog, be sure to add great pictures to your blog so that when you pin your blog post to your board, you can capture a great image. Images on Pinterest are obviously important!Click the "popular" link on Pinterest to see what's hot and what's trending. You might be able to make this part of your content strategy.Be sure to promote your Pinterest account on Facebook, Twitter, on your website, and in your email signature line, of course
A Few Final Points
Be sure to add a catchy description to your profile and when you're setting up your Pinterest account, link it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will help you gain followers, and add the icons to your profile page so you can direct people there, too. Make sure to engage on Pinterest. Repin pins you love, comment on pins and since you can see pins on the site from folks you aren't even connected with, be sure to broaden your reach when networking. You never know where the next follower will come from. Pinterest is a fun, if not highly addictive way to start marketing. Still not sure what to do on Pinterest? Then get started by following others in your industry and get a sense of what they're doing. While the future of Pinterest is still uncertain, one thing we know for sure. The site has grown at rates that no one expected and continues to do so. It's been the quickest site to monetize (to give you perspective, it took Twitter five years to monetize) and has already become a staple for many businesses.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

Despite being hugely technologically challenged, I managed to create three pinboards (so far) for my MG adventure novel, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab. However, my talented friend Lucinda Brant, who writes historical novels (Georgian, to be exact) has fantastic boards that are worth just browsing on their own.


What are you waiting for? Get Pinning!

Creating Your Story Universe

I recently read a great post by Larry Brooks, the Storyfix guy. It was an excellent post and it tied in just perfectly with a book I finished and reviewed today. The book was interesting, the story unique, but what grabbed me from the word go was the way the author set his tale firmly in the era, in 1916 when World War 1 was raging in Europe. The hero of the story is a French secret service agent posted to New York on a mission. As the story unfolds the detailed descriptions of the place and the people recreate the same kind of world for the reader, who feels as if he or she is experiencing what the main character does. Amazing what we can get our readers to feel if we really work hard. So, here is my post for today, combining some wonderful stuff from Larry Brooks (please sign up for his newsletter) and my review of The Counterfeit Consul.

Larry says this about a particular magical element—the secret weapon—of storytelling:

I call it vicarious experience, one of the major underlying story forces—essences—that impart power, weight and impact to novels and screenplays. Vicarious experience is delivered through setting, or though social, cultural or relational dynamics... Every story unfolds upon a dramatic stage. What we're talking about is recognizing the opportunity to make that stage—both in support of your story, and as an independent source of focus and fascination—more compelling. This is the forgotten stepchild of both story planning and story "pantsing," when in fact it can empower either process. When you add your story to a setting that delivers vicarious experience – when you set your story within this time, place or context that is, when regarded alone, inherently interesting – then you get a sum in excess of the parts...


Take a look at your story and ask yourself what kind of vicarious experience you are delivering to your reader. All stories take us out of our own lives and into another existence, but does your setting—either time, place, contextual or relational—contribute to the reading experience in an exciting, compelling, even frightening way? One that is vicarious? One that readers will be drawn to—drawn into—by virtue of this alone?

Brilliant advice! My enjoyment of The Counterfeit Consul came in a large part from the way the author built up an historic world for me, a reader who has no chance of travelling back in time to experience either the place or the happenings of the historical period for myself.

 The Counterfeit Consul Book Review: Gerard Le Caillec is the counterfeit consul, just one of many disguises he has held in his career in the French Foreign Intelligence Service. Quiet, unassuming and (to his superiors) utterly expendable, Gerard struggles for promotion. He is handed an excellent opportunity to make or break his career when he is posted to the New York City office of the service. It involves the destruction of armament warehouses on a Hoboken, New Jersey pier. The plot is set in 1916, against a backdrop of a world at war in Europe, and a neutral America supplying arms and munitions to both sides. The French hope that by bombing the warehouses, the American public will become aware of America's duplicity and protest against this hypocritical stance. Either way, the French hope to force America either to join the battle on the side of the allies or cease supplying the Germans. Gerard is brilliant at one particular aspect of his job: recruiting agents. His unassuming personality enables him to tap into the weaknesses and foibles of his targets and lure them into his mode of operations. On the orders of his superiors in Paris, he focuses on Armand Barsoum, a weak, spendthrift playboy, the scion of a prestigious French banking firm, working in their New York division. Armand tends to go for fast women and slow horses, a deadly combination that soon has him bankrupt and susceptible to Gerard's offer of money. However, Gerard wonders if Armand is indeed the right person to set the dynamite and bomb the warehouses. Armand tries wriggle out of their agreement and blurts his involvement to Trudy Gehr, a coarse German-born woman living in Hoboken. She, in turn informs a friend who informs...and when the Military Attaché at the Imperial German Consulate in New York learns of the plot, he makes immediate plans to deal with it.

This is an original spy novel with much to enjoy. The author's style suits the era and the subject matter. The intricacies of the plot unfold carefully, almost too slowly in the beginning as the author sets the scene for what is potentially an international firestorm. I enjoyed the meticulous details bringing the various characters to life. The author also paints an incredibly detailed picture of the New York of the early twentieth century: loud, tawdry, corrupt and filled with clubs, drinkers, bookies, gamblers, and goodtime gals. In this, the author succeeds admirably in taking the reader back to another era. Although some editing could speed up the pace of the action, the unfolding of events brings its own suspense-filled timing. With an interesting final twist to the tale, this is a great read for readers who enjoy historical and spy thrillers.

First Reviewed by Fiona I. for Readers Favorite